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Alternate History: Pokeballs, Chaos Emeralds, and Dualshocks
History has almost been too kind to Nintendo. Giving it Mario, Zelda, F-Zero, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Pokemon, Metroid, Kid Icarus, the highest selling game franchises, while treating it's competitors like nothing just for daring to try and compete with Nintendo. Even Nintendo's biggest competitor to day only became it's enemy BECAUSE of Nintendo! Well, not in this timeline! It's time for SEGA to have some time to shine after the horrid treatment it got in our "real" history. This is a practice timeline, since I'm not ready to post on the AltHistory forums. If anyone finds this, be sure to tell me how good/bad it is. This is effectively the Pokemon added version of the other timeline. NOTE: Contrary to the title, this is not a "Nintendo goes third party" timeline. 1990 - 1999: Two Betrayls 1990 - '''Most of this year goes on per our timeline, really. Nintendo opens the year on the top of the world, with Sega's Genesis/Mega Drive only beginning to edge into the market with it's marketing slogans and "blast processing". The console wars have effectively just begin. Nintendo reigns supreme in Japan like an Anaconda in a stranglehold, but Sega is just beginning to challenge them. Shigeru Miyamoto and other workers give Nintendo powerful and beloved franchises, and Hiroshi Yamauchi is a powerful head of the company with a keen mind and a good sense of good games, having helmed the company since 1949. Hayao Nakayama helms Sega since 1984 in contrast, and already the SNES would come out in Japan around November to compete with Sega's 16-bit Mega Drive/Genesis. Having been on top in the 1980's, Nintendo felt it didn't have much to worry about, and the plan of the SNES-CD with Sony was, for now, going along smoothly. Overall, this year is unchanged. It is however, put here because it is an important year, sort of the prolouge enviornment of everything. '''Unknown Time, 1991 or 1990 - '''Satoshi Tajiri of Game Freak pitches his idea to Nintendo of "Capsule Monsters", hoping to get it on the Game Boy. Though not grasping the concept, the Nintendo executives entertain the idea. Miyamoto himself works on improving the idea aswell. (OTL: The Pokemon game, the first two, took six years to develop. I can't however find any date as to when they were actually pitched, but with that time they could have been pitched at least in 1990 or 1991). At the same time, something over at Sega is brewing that would ultimately prove to challenge Nintendo and show the world that Nintendo will not be King for long. '''June 23, 1991 - Sonic the Hedgehog for the SEGA Genesis (or Mega Drive) is released. The first game in the Sonic franchise, it is the one that started everything. President of SEGA Hayao Nakayama played his part in the creation by wanting a character as iconic as Mickey Mouse for SEGA's mascot to compete with Mario. The character was ultimately designed by Naoto Oshima and the game developed by Yuji Naka. The game was a commercial success and had a major effect on the sales of the Genesis/Mega Drive, quickly helping Sega to work on it's way of gaining a foothold in the gaming industry worthy of standing toe-to-toe with it's nemesis, Nintendo. The gameplay, story and effect of the game is largely the same as in our own history, since the actual Point of Divergence is a bit afterwards so there is no major change to the beginning of the Franchise. The first game in the series introduces Sonic the Hedgehog, Dr. Robotnik, the First Generation of Badniks, the Small Animals, and all of the initial staples of the franchise. Also in June 1991, Nintendo revealed it's partnership with Philips, much to the shock (and humiliation) of Sony who saw this as an outright betrayl. June-December 1991 - Sonic Eraser is made available for users of the Sega Meganet, a modem for the Genesis/Mega Drive that is available only in Japan. The game is largely overshadowed & forgotten about, even considered "lost" for some time. October 25, 1991 - Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Master System is released in North America & Europe, though seemingly an 8-bit version of the Genesis title, it actually features alternate levels, some alternate items, and the Chaos Emeralds are hidden in the levels rather than in a bonus stage. December 12, 1991 - The Sega CD Add-On for the Genesis/Mega Drive is released. December 28, 1991 - The 8-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog is released on the Sega Game Gear Unspecified date, 1991 - 'Upon noticing a problem with the liscening in the deal with Sony, Nintendo wastes little time in cancelling the contract and in an act of utter and bitter betrayl, dismisses Sony and announces a partnership with Philips instead. This utter stab in the back set into motion many events to come, and humiliated Sony's President Norio Ohga. Attempts at reconcilation were made, but proved completely futile in the end. '''Unspecified date, approximately 1991 or 1992 - ' After the humiliation Nintendo gave to Sony, Sega of America president Tom Kalinske was approached by the leaders of Sony's own American division with a proposal for Sega and Sony to team up. Kalinske approached CEO Nakayama and Sega's executive board with the idea. Though extremely skeptical and reluctant on the whole thing, Kalinske's wording was different than in our timeline, and was able to convince Nakayama and the Board to say "yes" to the project, after consulting with Sony's President Norio Ohga. When reminded of the humiliation he suffered at the hands of Nintendo, Ohga wasted no time in agreeing to team up with the arch nemesis of his humiliator. '''October 16, 1992 - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is released for the Master System, becoming the technical debut of Miles "Tails" Prower aswell as the debut of Silver Sonic/Mecha Sonic. November 17, 1992 - Sonic the Hedgehog 2, 8-bit, is released on the Game Gear. November 21, 1992 - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is released for the Genesis/Mega Drive, introducing Tails & Silver Sonic/Mecha Sonic aswell as the spin dash ability to the 16-bit series of games. The game has sold over 6 million copies, making it the second best-selling game for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive (after the original Sonic the Hedgehog). Only 400,000 sold in Japan though. It is also the first game in the series to introduce Sonic's ability to transform into Super Sonic. It also debuted the Death Egg as a story construct, a massive space station built by Robotnik to serve as his flagship. December 1992 - A boy in America named Christopher Weston Chandler changes his name to Christian Weston Chandler at the behest of an animatronic bear around this time. May 28, 1993 - TheSuper Mario Bros. film comes in theaters, and is both a box office bomb and poorly recieved by critics. It likely contributed to Sonic's own growing popularity as a result though this can not be certain. June 1993 - 'SegaSonic the Hedgehog, featuring Mighty the Armadillo & Ray the Flying Squirrel alongside Sonic in an Arcade title, is released. '''September 6, 1993 - 'Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog begins airing. 'September 18, 1993 - 'Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) begins airing. 'September 23, 1993 - 'Sonic the Hedgehog CD is released for the Sega CD add-on as it's only Sonic title, and is the first Sonic title to use FMVs, the super peel-out ability alongside the spin-dash, and introduces Metal Sonic & Amy Rose to the franchise. It is also the first in the series to use time travel elements, and use Time Stones over the Chaos Emeralds. 'October 4, 1993 - '''The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer (or simply 3DO) is released on this date, developed by "The 3DO Company" but models manufactured by Panasonic (predominantly), Sanyo and GoldStar. '''October 25, 1993 - 'Sonic Chaos is released for the Game Gear & Master System, featuring both Sonic & Tails as playable for the first time in an 8-bit Sonic title. 'November 3, 1993 - '''The 65th and final main episode of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog airs, but the series continues in reruns through to 1996. '''November 15, 1993 - 'Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball is released on the Genesis/Mega Drive in Europe, and throughout the month and into early December would see American & Japanese released on the system aswell. It is a tie-in to the SatAM series to some extent, though rather loosely. It is a pinball-based title. It also later recieves a port to the Game Gear & Master System. 'November 23, 1993 - '''The Atari Jaguar is released and marketed as a 64 bit machine. It causes Sega to consider making a 32 bit system of it's own, and at one point a plan for a second Genisis Add-On, conceptualized by Tom Kalinske, is made aswell. The planned system/add-on goes into development problems thanks to the on-going development alongside Sony, which later encourages Nakayama to ultimately have the idea scrapped altogether. Though the idea was teased in a magazine in 1994, it was never spoken of again. '''November 25, 1993 - '''Sonic becomes the first video game character to be added into the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, a feat that truly stuck it to Mario. '''November 26, 1993 - 'Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine is released on the Genesis/Mega Drive. A Sonic-themed version of the puzzle game Puyo Puyo, and the first game in the franchise to have Robotnik's name in the title. 'February 2, 1994 -' Sonic the Hedgehog 3 '''is released on the Genesis/Mega Drive. It continues the Death Egg storyline from Sonic 2, revealing it crashed on Angel Island, which is protected by new character Knuckles the Echidna. The game was released in Japan for the Mega Drive on 14 January 1994. The European Sega Mega Drive release came later that month. The game was released for the Sega Genesis in North America on 2 February 1994. Celebrity Michael Jackson also had an (albeit uncredited) role in making parts of the game's soundtrack, which wouldn't be confirmed until years after the game's release. After the game's completion, American half of Sonic Team/Sega Technical Institute would begin the development of the Sonic title intended for the upcoming console being made with Sony, though the Japanese half went back to Japan with Yuji Naka. However, a team of developers from Sony were handed to the project aswell, adding to the project the goals of "beating Nintendo" and "Impressing Japanese Audiences with Sonic alongside Western ones". '''March-April, 1994 - '''Yamauchi looks over the Game Boy's popularity and does infact see that it is declining, though notes it is still dominating the handheld market. He begins having second thoughts on the Pocket Monsters idea, seeing it as a project that would neither be a loss or a gain, as it takes longer to develop, and Game Freak's ensuing bankruptcy aswell as work with Sega on a title called "Pulseman". With five workers ready to quit or about to quit and Tajiri working unpaid, Yamauchi decides to call Tajiri up and tells him that Nintendo is no longer funding or supporting the project, but gives him a cash sum of yen in compensation. Tajiri is heartbroken at this utter betrayl, and tries to contact Shigeru Miyamoto, who does try to change the Presient's mind, though is unsuccessful as the rest of the board vetoes Miyamoto's attempts. The situation causes a temporary rift between Miyamoto and the executives of Nintendo, but Miyamoto continues to help Tajiri with training regardless of what they say, out of being Tajiri's friend. The cancellation of Pocket Monsters would become known as "Yamauchi's Darkest Hour". Further angering Tajiri was the fact it had been done over the phone, likely due to Yamauchi's own worries of what if it had been face-to-face. 2000 - 2009: New Century, New Generation 2010 - 2016: Damage Control, Hope, and Ambition Category:Fall Of Nintendo